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2046 I Wenceslas ► Weser River
four major styles of calligraphy: seal, official, regular, and “running.” In all his paintings there is a spirit of studied antiquarianism and cautious consideration. In technique, Wen Zhengming’s paintings range from the highly detailed to the more freely washed. Along with his teacher, Shen Zhou, he was a leading figure of the Wu school of scholar-artists.
Wenceslas (b. Feb. 26, 1361, Nurnberg—d. Aug. 16, 1419, Prague) King of Bohemia (as Wenceslas IV, 1363-96) and German king and Holy Roman emperor (1378-1400). The son of the emperor Charles IV, he was a weak ruler whose reign was plagued by wars and princely rivalries. He spent most of his time in Prague to the detriment of Germany, which suf¬ fered a decade of anarchy until peace was established by the Diet at Eger (1389). He was deposed by rebellious princes in 1400.
Wenceslas Vwen-so-.slosX I (b. 1205—d. Sept. 23, 1253) King of Bohe¬ mia (1230-53). He prevented Mongol armies from attacking Bohemia in 1241 but could not defend Moravia. He gained control of Austria and forced the Austrian estates to accept his son Premysl Otakar II as their duke in 1251. Bohemia prospered under his reign, and an influx of Ger¬ man colonists and craftsmen enriched the country.
Wenceslas II (b. Sept. 17, 1271—d. June 21, 1305) King of Bohemia (1278-1305). He inherited the throne from his father at age seven, but his cousin Otto IV of Brandenburg served as his regent until 1283. Wenceslas gained full control of the country only after suppressing a dissident fac¬ tion and executing his ambitious stepfather in 1290. A capable ruler who extended the boundaries of his kingdom, he annexed most of Upper Sile¬ sia and occupied Krakow (1291). He became king of Poland in 1300 but declined to become king of Hungary in 1301, instead placing his son Wenceslas on the Hungarian throne (1301-04).
Wend Any member of a group of Slavic tribes that by the 5th century ad had settled in the area between the Oder and Elbe rivers in what is now eastern Germany. They occupied the eastern borders of the domain of the Franks and other Germanic peoples. From the 6th century the Franks warred sporadically against the Wends; under Charlemagne in the early 9th century they began a campaign to subjugate the Wends and forcibly convert them to Christianity. German annexation of Wendish territories began in 929 but collapsed during a Wendish rebellion in 983. A German Crusade against the Wends in 1147, authorized by the church and led by Henry the Lion, inflicted great loss of life. The Wends thereafter offered little opposition to German colonization of the Elbe-Oder region; them¬ selves enserfed, they were gradually assimilated by the Germans, except for a minority in the traditional region of Lusatia (in eastern Germany) who are now known as Sorbs.
Wenders Wen-dors \, Wim orig. Ernst Wilhelm Wenders (b.
Aug. 14, 1945, Diisseldorf, Ger.) German film director. He directed short films from 1967 and made features from 1973, including Alice in the Cit¬ ies (1974) and Kings of the Road (1976), which explored themes of alien¬ ation and anxiety that are typical of Wenders’s work. He won acclaim in the U.S. for Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987). He later directed Far Away, So Close (1993), Lisbon Story (1994), The End of Vio¬ lence (1997), and the documentary Buena Vista Social Club (1999).
Wendi or Wen Ti \'won-'de\ Chinese god of literature. His chief heav¬ enly task is to keep a register of men of letters so that he can mete out rewards and punishments to each according to merit. He had 17 reincar¬ nations, during the ninth of which he appealed on earth as Zhang Ya. His writing earned him canonization during the Tang dynasty.
Wendi or Wen-ti Vw3n-'de\ orig. Liu Heng (b. 203 bc, China—d. 157 bc, China) Fourth emperor of the Chinese Han dynasty. His long reign (180-157 bc) was one of good government and peaceful consolidation of power. Under his rule, China’s economy prospered and its population expanded. To later ages Wendi epitomized the virtues of frugality and benevolence in a Chinese ruler.
Wendi or Wen-ti orig. Yang Jian (b. 541, China—d. 604, China) Founder of the Chinese Sui dynasty, which reunified China after centuries of instability. He was born into a powerful family in northern China, an area controlled by the non-Chinese Northern Zhou dynasty (557-81). When the Zhou emperor died unexpectedly, Wendi seized the throne, overcame his rivals, and in 581 proclaimed the Sui dynasty. Intending to build a strong, centralized state, he designed a huge new capital at Chang 7 an and attacked entrenched local interests. Families with heredi¬ tary local power were replaced with officials selected by examination, who were forbidden to serve in the areas from which they came and were
rotated frequently. Wendi conquered the dynasties of southern China and broke the power of the Turkish empires in Turkistan and Mongolia. He put the equal-field system into practice and produced a new legal code. His government brought in tax revenues and maintained price-regulating gra¬ naries. In old age he became deeply involved with Buddhism, building shrines and dedicating relics. See also Yang Di.
Wentworth, Thomas See Thomas Wentworth, 1st earl of Strafford
Wenwang or Wen-wang Vwon-'warjX or Xibo (fl. 12th century bc, China) Father of Wuwang (founder of the Zhou dynasty) and one of the sage rulers regarded by Confucian historians as a model king. He is tra¬ ditionally credited as author of the divination formulas of the Yijing [I ching), which he is supposed to have written during his imprisonment by the last ruler of the Shang dynasty. See also Confucianism; Five Classics.
Wenzel Anton, prince von Kaunitz \'kau-nits\ -Rietberg (b.
Feb. 2, 1711, Vienna, Austria—d. June 27, 1794, Vienna) Austrian state chancellor (1753-92). He entered the Austrian foreign service in 1740 and was responsible for the foreign policy of the Habsburg monarchy, serv¬ ing Maria Theresa and her successors. He represented Austria at the 1748 Aix-la-Chapelle peace conference and was ambassador to Paris (1750- 52). A lifelong enemy of Prussia, he managed to reverse Austria’s alli¬ ances during the Seven Years 7 War, bringing France and Russia into the Habsburg orbit and isolating Prussia. The French Revolution terminated the system of alliances he had created, and he resigned in 1792.
werewolf In European folklore, a man who changes into a wolf at night and devours animals, people, or corpses, returning to human form by day. Some werewolves are thought to change shape at will; others, who inherited the condition or acquired it by being bitten by a werewolf, are transformed involuntarily under the influence of a full moon. Belief in werewolves is found throughout the world and was especially common in 16th-century France. Humans who believe they are wolves suffer from a mental disorder called lycanthropy.
Werner Vver-norN, Abraham Gottlob (b. Sept. 25, 1750,
Wehrau, Saxony—d. June 30, 1817,
Freiberg) German geologist. In opposition to the Plutonists, or Vulcanists, who argued that granite and many other rocks were of igneous origin, he founded the Neptunist school, which proclaimed that all rocks resulted from precipitation from oceans that had, he theorized, once completely covered the Earth. He rejected uniformitarianism. His brilliant lecturing and personal charm won him many students, who, though many eventually discarded his theories, would not renounce them while Werner lived.
Wertheimer Vvert-.hl-morX, Max (b. April 15, 1880, Prague, Czech.—d. Oct. 12, 1943, New Rochelle, N.Y., U.S.) German psycholo¬ gist. He taught at the Universities of Frankfurt and Berlin (1916-29) before immigrating to the U.S. to teach at the New School for Social Research (1933-43). With Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Kofifka (1886-1941), he was instrumental in establishing Gestalt psychology. Much of his work dealt with perception, though he also explored thinking and problem solving. His Productive Thinking was published posthumously in 1945.